A Deadly Education

Chapter 1

Soul-­eater

I decided that Orion needed to die after the second time he saved my life. I hadn t really cared much about him before then one way or another, but I had limits. It would ve been all right if he d saved my life some really extraordinary number of times, ten or thirteen or so ­thirteen is a number with distinction. Orion Lake, my personal bodyguard; I could have lived with that. But we d been in the Scholomance almost three years by then, and he hadn t shown any previous inclination to single me out for special treatment.

Selfish of me, you ll say, to be contemplating with murderous intent the hero responsible for the continued survival of a quarter of our class. Well, too bad for the losers who couldn t stay afloat without his help. We re not meant to all survive, anyway. The school has to be fed somehow.

Ah, but what about me, you ask, since I d needed him to save me? Twice, even? And that s exactly why he had to go. He set off the explosion in the alchemy lab last year, fighting that chimaera. I had to dig myself out of the rubble while he ran around in circles whacking at its fire-­breathing tail. And that soul-­eater hadn t been in my room for five seconds before he came through the door: he must have been right on its heels, probably chasing it down the hall. The thing had only swerved in here looking to escape.

But who s going to let me explain any of that? The chimaera might not have stuck to me, there were more than thirty kids in the lab that day, but a dramatic rescue in my bedchamber is on another level. As far as the rest of the school is concerned, I ve just fallen into the general mass of hapless warts that Orion Lake has saved in the course of his brilliant progress, and that was intolerable.

Our rooms aren t very big. He was only a few steps from my desk chair, still hunched panting over the bubbling purplish smear of the soul-­eater that was now steadily oozing into the narrow cracks between the

Naomi Novik is the New York Times bestselling author of A Deadly Education, The Last Graduate, and The Golden Enclaves,  the award-winning novels Uprooted and Spinning Silver, and the Temeraire series. She is a founder of the Organization for Transformative Works and the Archive of Our Own. She lives in New York City with her family and six computers.

I loved this book. It s such a nail-biter, it s funny, it s thought-provoking, and it s such a good read. BuzzFeed

Novik deliciously undoes expectations about magic schools, destined heroes, and family legacies. A gorgeous book about monsters and monstrousness, chockablock with action, cleverness, and wit. Holly Black, #1 New York Times bestselling author

At the Scholomance, monsters are everywhere and the breakfast might kill you, but the wonderful cast of characters will grab ahold of your heart and you ll never want to leave this deadly school. Naomi Novik skillfully combines sharp humor with layers of imagination to build a fantasy that delights on every level. I loved this brilliant book. Stephanie Garber, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Caraval series

Eyeball-meltingly brilliant . . . Novik is, quite simply, a genius. Kiersten White, New York Times bestselling author of And I Darken

Hilarious and wild! Take any fictional magic school, make it as over-the-top dangerous as possible, and populate it with a bunch of snarky teenagers; the result is pure batshit fun. N. K. Jemisin, New York Times bestselling author of The City We Became

A Deadly Education is a nightmare from which I never wished to wake: savage, inventive, and soulful. Novik grasps the totems of childhood that linger in your mind schools of magic, curses, cutthroat classmates, monsters only to twist them into a grand new tale that ll make you believe in magic again. Pierce Brown, New York Times bestselling author of Dark Age

A Deadly Education is a book that lives up to its gobsmacker of an opening sentence and follows right through to its shocker of an ending that promises more to come. Naomi Novik is relentlessly innovative and entertaining. Terry Brooks, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Druid

Friendship in spite of itself; danger that doesn t quit what a wildly magical ride!